Arch-support.



J. D. PRICE. ARCH sUPPoRT.`

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 13, 1912 UNITED STATES PATENT" oEE'rcE. N

JOHN D. PRICE, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOROF ONE-THIRD TO H. G. POWELLAND ONE-THIRD TO HENRY" SPIES, BOTH 0F CLEVELAND, OHIO.

l ARCH-SUPPORT.

. Specification of Letters Patent Patented Aug. 4, 19141.

Application filed June 13, 1912. Serial No. 703,531.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JorrN D. PRICE, a citi'-zen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, inthe county ofCuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Arch-Supports; and do declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to boots and shoes, and more especially to footsupporters;` and the object of the same is to produce an improvedsupport for the arch of the shoe and foot, capable of being attached toany form of shoe by which term I mean to be underlstood -in thisspecification asembracing all classes of foot-wear havin a raised archbetween the heel and the baigl of the sole.

To this end the invention consists in the arch support hereinafterspecifically described and claimed, and shown in the draw- .ings,wherein# Figure 1 is a perspective view of this support alone, and Fig.2 a perspective view of the underside of a low-quarter shoe with thesupport attached thereto; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional'viewthrough the shoe and arch support, and Fig. 1 is a cross section on theline 4-4 of Fig. 8.

In the drawings a shoe or other article of foot-wear is shown ascomposed ofen upper U, heel H, and sole S arched between the ball of thesole and the heel as at A; and no novelty is claimed for this shoe. .Itis well known vthat with some people, especially those of considerableweight the arch often breaks down or flattens out, giving an untidy andunsightly a pearance to the foot and having its bad ev ect u on thehealth as experience has shown. forts to overcome this defect in or`abnormal condition of the foot have been made by providing archsnpporters, mostof which are placed inside the shoe, but thel result isthat the weight whichV caused the original trouble is then thrown ends.

jacent the heel that it normally strikes the licor or pavement in theact ot' walking bo that it assists the heel in supporting the weightthrown -onto the shoe by the wearer."

By preference I make this improved arch supporter of rubber or rubbercomposition so that itwill have a certain yielding eifect and 'cushionthe weight thrown upon it, but the composition should contain matcrials'to prevent undue wear.

Coming now more particularly to the details of the present invention thesupporter is shown detached in Fig. 1, attached by screws 1 in Fig. 2,and attached by nails 2 in Fig. 4, although in either case the heads ofthe fastening devices are at their lower Viewed from beneath, thegeneral 'outline'.of this arch support is that of a truncatedvisoscelestriangle, if I may use Cthe expression, with the base-3 disposed adjacent the ball of the'sole S and by Ipreference slightly dished, theshort side 4: along that edge of the arch A which is shortest or wherethe soleV S comes nearest to the heel H and also slightly dished, thelong side 5 at the other sideof the shoe and slightly dished, and thetruncated end (3 of the triangle next the heel. Such is the shape oi'the face, or (when the device is inverted and in proper position) thebottom of the supporter. The back, or (when the device is in properosition and inverted) the tcp 7 also follows the general shape of atruncated Visosceles triangle whose base is coincident with the base ofthe triangle forming the bottom, whose sides S and 9 are dished to aconsiderably greater extentthan the sides of the bottom and convergemuch more rapidly, and whose truncated end 10 is flat like thetruncated' end (i of the bottom as shown. It follows that when the twotriangles described are superposedwith their bases 3 coincident, thereis a` considerable space along their remaining sides; but as the sup-Iporter grows thicker from its front edge 3 toward its rear end as seenin Fig. 3, the faces constituting 'these sides are beveled or inclinedasshown at 1l and 13. Finally, thetop face 7 toward its truncated end 10is dished transversely as best seen in Fig. +L at 14C leaving two sharpedges 1 5 which are intended to contact with the floor or pavethe weightoff the heel, althpugh the edges' wear away as fast as does the lowerlift of the heel as will be clear.

As Suggested above, the device is attached to the sole by nails orscrews whose heads are raised above the floor because they stand withinthe dished face 7, by preference itso down of the arch of both thefootand sole is prevented The advantages of. forming the lower face of thesupporter in the two sharp edges described, lies in the fact that theblock of rubber when brought -to such edges has more elasticityv than if.left flat and solid, the channel between the edges Would span 'anobstruction on the floor if the wearerl should happen to step on it, ifthe edges should project a little below the heel when the' device isfirst applied they will cling tothe floor while yet yielding underpressure to allow the heel to come down onto it, and if' they do soproject they will wear away more rapidly than. if the blockv were solid.A further advantage of this formation lies in the ease ofapplication ofvthis device to a shoe by the cobbler. .If he finds that'the shoe hassuch a low heel that the edges wouldvproject undesirably below it, hecan readily trim off the eXtreme cornersof the edges by-the use of anordinary knife, and can produce a much better job than if the block weresolid throughout its width. But whet-her he cuts it away or the devicein time becomes worn down to the level of the bottom of the heel, itwears thereafter just as rapidly as does the lower lift of the heel H orthe lower face ofthe sole S, and in fact the deviceawill probably adaptitself better to use after it has'been` worn fo-r a. few days than atrst. Thev forward tapering end of the resilient blockl forming thesupporter is solid and closely contacts with the arch of the sole of theshoe adjacent t0 and forming a continuationof the same, said forward endof the supporter i being wider than the remaining portion of.

heights.

witnesses.

the same-whereby the arch of the--sole is rendered more durable, and.further causing the same to retain its original contour.-

It is further t0 be observed -that the lower flat, solid and taperingforward end of the' supporter forms additional wearing surface andprotects the arched portion of lthe sole of the shoe fromwear and injurywithout of course prolongedbe'cause the use of the supporter preventsthe arch A of Fthe sole from being crushed by the superimposed It islextremely economical to manufacture this device, because it may \bemade of one piece of material, and ifof yrubber composition itispreferably molded and pressed by a process which it will not benecessary to amplify in this specification. When in place is absorbs theshock due to stepping down suddenly on the foot, as when the wearerascends or desee-ndsA steps or is forced to run for a few paces.Manifestly the'device will be manufactured in sizes to fit variousShoes,

andin. thicknesses tot heels of various It may be applied atthe time ofmaking theshoe, or `may be sold as anattachment and applied later." Whatis claimed as new, is;

An arch vsupport of the character described comprising a resilient blockarranged'to be detachably secured to the sole of a shoe beneath the archthereof, with its inner end abuttingfthe front face of the-heel, saidblock having theopposite sides thereof tapered inwardly andv concavoshaped whereby to produce a narrowed tread surface and thereby at0increase the resiliency of said support, saidblock being graduallytapered from vits central portion to the outer end thereof, said treadsurface being dished transversely to form-two sharp edges whereby toaugment the resiliency of said block.

' In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my lhand in presence of twosubscribing JOHN D. PRICE.l

Witnesses T. J.- SrIAN'rER, ELIZABETH DUDLEY.

